Rev. Kurt Lantz Day of Supplication and Prayer Isaiah 1:2-18

August 05, 2005 Southampton LC Southampton, ON

August 07, 2005 Grace LC Kincardine, ON

Dear children of God living under His will and love in Canada,

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

 Happenings in the Courts

The courts have been busy and effective at changing this great country of ours. There are parliamentary courts which establish laws. There are judicial courts which decide cases based on existing law. And there is the court of public opinion which in its own way judges the laws established by the parliament and enforced by the judicial system.

In 1969 the parliament of our nation struck down the law against abortion and since that year of my birth more than 2 million defenceless babies have been legally killed in our country. The age of consent for sexual activity has been reduced to fourteen. So in our country, we believe that driving a car takes more maturity than becoming a parent. And most recently the parliament, senate, and governor general of Canada passed a law legalizing same-sex marriages throughout our nation. Our parliament has acted against the clear Word of God, biological science, and all the powers of reason that God has invested in mankind.

Riding on the coattails of the court of parliament and sometimes pushing them from behind are the courts of justice. After our parliament included sexual orientation as one of the categories under which condemnatory speech could be considered a hate crime, the judicial courts are already active. Now, we ought not to speak in a way that incites hatred toward homosexuals, but the Roman Catholic Bishop of Calgary, Fred Henry, is being investigated by the Alberta Human Rights Commission for a January sermon where he outlined the Christian and Scriptural teaching on marriage.

Other examples include: the Durham Catholic School Board being forced to allow a homosexual student to bring his same-sex partner to the prom, contrary to the school’s code of conduct; and the British Columbia Supreme Court which has upheld the suspension of Chris Kempling’s teaching licence for his letters to the editor of a newspaper wherein he defended the Christian, Scriptural understanding of the evils of homosexual behaviour.

Now, most of us are not members of the court of parliament or of the judicial courts but we are members of another very important court, the court of public opinion. This is how the citizens of Canada judge the laws passed by our parliament and how they are enforced by our judicial system. So what is happening in the court of public opinion?

On June 16 at the University of Western Ontario’s Alumni Hall, Dr. Henry Morgentaler, our nation’s most notorious abortionist, received the honorary doctor of laws degree. What did you have to say about that? Every year there is a March for Life in Ottawa to protest the lack of a law against abortion and locally there are life chain events that do the same. Are you there presenting your case as a participant? What kind of a witness have you been throughout the process of the legalization of same-sex marriage? It’s easy to point the finger at members of parliament and judicial magistrates, but we must also point the finger at ourselves.

As a member of the court of public opinion in this country, are you presenting your testimony, giving evidence to the truth, condemning the errors of your nation, or giving your silent consent to all that is happening. While schools are being filled with books about homosexual relationships so that our children are brought up to think that this is natural and acceptable, don’t you think that it involves you?

This is your country. There were plenty of demonstrations against same-sex marriage legislation. You always have the opportunity to write letters to the editor of local publications and to your members of parliament—all of them, including the Prime Minister. And you have the right to cast your vote on issues of morality as well as issues of finance.

This is your country. You have the right and responsibility to plead your case and to testify to the truth before the public, before your family, and before God. That’s what we want to do today. We want to plead our case before God and place things into His court, knowing that He is a righteous Judge and that His Word is truth.

 God’s Court

In various places in Scripture the Lord Almighty calls for the arraignment of mankind. The first chapter of Isaiah is one of those places where God calls the heavens and the earth to hear His case against the accused: "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me." The Lord does a masterful job of presenting His case through the prophet Isaiah.

His first witnesses, the dumb ox and the stubborn donkey at least know their owners and masters, but the children on earth do not know their heavenly Father. The Creator of all is ignored by mankind. We have forsaken Him and turned away. Our country has removed the Lord’s Prayer from the schools and put in books like, Heather has Two Mommies. How backward is that?

We have nothing against the Heathers of the world who have two mommies, but to try to teach our children that Heather’s two mommies have done nothing wrong and that their relationship is natural and acceptable in our society and before the Lord is a blatant lie. And to remain silent about it is to go along with it. Our country has legalized the relationship of Heather’s two mommies, is promoting it in our schools and has arranged it so that those who speak out against such a relationship may be charged with hate crimes and human rights offences.

The approval of homosexual relationships is a result of turning away from God the Almighty Creator. Listen to the testimony of the Lord from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans:

God tells us that homosexuality is unclean (spiritually and physically), dishonourable, unnatural, shameful, debased, immoral, wicked, and evil. Those who practice it and those who approve of it have sinned against the Lord. Our country has legalized it and encouraged those who practice it to seek the blessing of the state and of the church.

It is impossible for any church claiming to worship the God made known through His Word, the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible, to tolerate, or approve such transgression against their God. These unions are not blessed by God, and they should not be blessed in any church claiming the Triune God as its Lord. Nor should any Christian bearing the name of Christ approve or give the impression that it is okay for people to make up their own mind on this issue.

In legalizing same-sex marriage, our country has forsaken the LORD, provoked Him to anger, and have turned away backward. For "God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply;’" (Genesis 1:27-28). "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to His wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).

We, the citizens of Canada, you and I, have sinned against God, corporately as a nation and individually, as we have not always proclaimed the truth of His Word, have not always opposed the errors of our land, and have ourselves committed other sins just as deserving of the Lord’s wrath and punishment, now and forever.

So, will God punish us? The history of His people, Israel, as recorded in the bible tells us that God does punish the nation when it turns away from Him. With Israel it was always in order that they would see their sin and turn back to God in repentance. Then He would forgive them, relent and be their God again.

But by Isaiah’s time and in our Scripture lesson God asks if punishment will do any good, because He knows His people will turn away from Him again? He sees the nation as a body, not with a broken arm or infected foot, but thoroughly diseased from the head to the heart to the sole of the foot. Can the nation be saved at all or has the disease spread too far?

Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and said it would occur because they did not realize when the Lord came to them (Luke 19:41-44). Martin Luther saw the Peasant’s War in Germany as God’s judgment against a nation that had recovered the precious truth of the Gospel, but chose to ignore it. Will it be any different with us, a nation that was once steadfast in the Christian faith but has now abandoned it? There are horrendous acts of nature throughout the world (hurricanes, tsunamis, floods). There are plane crashes and acts of terrorism, yet our nation as of late has been relatively unscathed.

If some such catastrophe comes upon us will we see it as the judgment of God punishing our country for its wickedness, or will famine, disease, war, and calamity have no effect on us? Is our country so diseased that it will no longer sense any act of God as a call to repentance? Will He preserve our land for the sake of the faithful?

As spoken through the prophet Isaiah, "Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah." Those cities were destroyed because of their wickedness. Yet the LORD in His mercy spared Lot and his daughters.

What are we to do? We are not to pretend that nothing is wrong. Not even if we continue to worship and pray to God, pretending that nothing is wrong. God had no delight in the sacrifices of the Israelites while sin was running rampant throughout the nation. He said that He would hide His eyes from them and not hear their prayers.

So are we wasting our time here tonight? We are if we pretend that there is nothing wrong with our country or if we pretend that there is nothing wrong with ourselves. A service of supplication and prayer for our nation does no good if it is done to show men that we are holier than they. We don’t need their acknowledgment or their contempt. Such a reward does nothing for us. Let us strive rather for a heavenly reward. Let us fix our hearts on the treasure of God’s forgiveness and eternal life and so confess our sins to Him, expecting what He has promised to give.

"‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’" Let us reason together with God. Let us agree with Him that we have sinned most grievously and are in need of His gracious forgiveness. Let us acknowledge that our country has turned away from Him and plead for His mercy.

Our sins are like scarlet, but the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is deeper than all our sins. Before the eyes of the heavenly Father it gleams brighter and He no longer regards our iniquity. The death of the Lord Christ upon the cross is the punishment for our transgressions and it has been paid in full. The blood He shed there washes us clean and makes us pure and untainted before God Almighty.

The Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, came down from heaven, was rejected by His own nation, and now is rejected by your nation. But He came to give Himself for the life of the world and that most certainly includes you. The King of kings and Lord of lords suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried for the sins of the Jews, for the sins of the Romans, for the sins of Canadians, for your sins.

The crimson stains of our immorality and apathy are taken away by the blood of the Lamb who was slain and is alive again, Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for us all. He has died the death we deserve and has risen again to give us eternal life. He sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and will come again to judge the living and the dead. In His court justice will be served according to His Word. And His Word declares us forgiven for the sentence has already been carried out. And so we will live forever in our heavenly country free from the wickedness of the world and our own sin, under the gracious government of our God.

Until then, may the red and white of the Canadian flag be a constant reminder for us to confess our sins and cling to God’s forgiveness in Christ Jesus. For though our sins are red like crimson, in Christ they shall be as white as snow.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.